Karlsson, Sebastian

Abstract [en]

In a scope where continuous innovations are seen each day, the cyberspace can be seen as the tech-entrepreneurs’ playground for delivering new solutions to customers. Digital start-ups who interact through the cyberspace operate with little to no restriction despite having limiting resource. In 2008 a man named Satoshi Nakamoto developed a new technology called blockchain. The new breed of firms providing blockchain solutions have been painted to live in a borderless world with little technical restrictions. Exploring the effects that blockchain brings to their internationalisation has brought our attention to study the early internationalisation of blockchain born globals and their business ecosystem.

The deductive and qualitative approach gave the results from four different companies that were involved in blockchain technology. By using previous theory on internationalisation and a deductive approach a conceptual synthesis was developed. The synthesis was later applied in the case-companies to observe the results.

The findings have shown that the firms implementing blockchain in the core offering has resulted in an accelerated internationalisation. The major factors contributing to this quick internationalisations is the spread of knowledge between buyers and sellers, trough the cyberspace. However, the authors were unable to find a relationship between the accelerated internationalisation and to the extent in which a firm has implemented blockchain in its core offering. The finding has given the authors prominent answers to the research question and has highlighted the complexity of the subject. The, authors conclude the thesis by displaying the importance of cyberspace in the business ecosystem; how it attracts customers and the importance of the company’s business model. Blockchain technology proved to have effects on the process of internationalisation due to superior technological performance, but also its hype.